Digital hydraulics has rapidly achieved the status of one of the most promising new technologies in fluid power area. It has proven potential to replace traditional hydraulics in the future. Digital hydraulics was invented at IHA in 1999.

General idea of digital hydraulic components is to use just a few different types of basic components and introduce functionality of machines by multiplying these basic components. Mass production can be used, which reduces costs and allows high level of optimization of the components.

Some Digital Fluid Power Publications

• Linjama, M., Laamanen, A. & Vilenius, M. Is It Time for Digital Hydraulics? The Eighth Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, May 7-9, 2003, Tampere, Finland, pp. 347-366.
• Linjama, M. Digital Hydraulic Power Management System - Towards lossless hydraulics. Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Digital Fluid Power, October 13-14, 2010, Tampere, Finland, pp. 5-22.
• Linjama, M. Digital Fluid Power – State of the Art. The Twelfth Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, May 18-20, 2011, Tampere, Finland, pp. 331-354. 3rd DFP, 2010
   

Active research topics in digital hydraulics:

• Power management
• Digital microhydraulics
• Digital valve systems
• Energy efficiency
• Controller design
   

Pros of Digital Hydraulics

• Practically lossless systems
  • Huge impact on usage of fossil fuels
• New level of Fault Tolerance
  • 100% availability for system in case of severe valve faults
• Fast & Exact
• Decreased system, running and maintenance costs
   

New Innovations in Digital Hydraulics

The newest innovation is the Digital Hydraulic Power Management System, which practically removes hydraulic losses and reduces the fuel consumption of hydraulic machines up to 50 %. Digital hydraulics has great positive impact on the environmental issues and the competiveness of Finnish industry.